1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of transverse gas flow RF pumped waveguide lasers, and specifically to continuous wave mid-infrared lasers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Transverse gas flow radio frequency excited discharge waveguide laser technology development by the assignee has included continuous wave and pulse excitation for infrared CO.sub.2 gas lasers, and pulse excitation mid-infrared chemical lasers.
In particular, the development of such lasers began with radio frequency waveguide CO.sub.2 gas lasers that operated in the continuous wave mode at far-infrared with a wavelength of 10.6 microns. The RF waveguide laser was then utilized as a CO.sub.2 gas laser in the pulse mode at far-infrared with a wavelength of 10.6 microns. Next, a RF waveguide laser in the pulse in the mid-infrared was implemented with HF and DF kinetics. Finally, a transverse gas flow RF waveguide laser was developed that was able to operate in various embodiments in a pulse or continuous wave mode at far-infrared with a wavelength of 10.6 microns for a CO.sub.2 gas laser, a pulse mode at wavelengths of 2.7 or 3.8 microns for HF or DF gas lasers, respectively, and finally a pulse mode mid-infrared rare gas laser.